Last movie you watched (Page 40 of 83)

Just finished Thor: The Dark World. Wow, you guys complained that Iron Man 3 was a mess? THIS is a mess. The sloppy editing can barely manage to communicate the incomprehensible story. Iron Man 3 is a really smart, funny movie. This is a boring pile of shit. Marvel's first movie since Iron Man 2 that I'd call truly awful.

I was forced to abandon my last chance to see it today, as I just wasn't feeling well. It has been playing two afternoon showings only for the past two weeks, and today I assume was the last day.

From your description, I'm reminded of my favorite Ghibli movie, Whisper of the Heart. Miyazaki did the story and storyboards of that one, but Yoshifumi Kondo directed. That, too, was a slow character piece with some fantasy elements. I wonder exactly what input Miyazaki had with The Wind Rises.

Way better than Thor. Also, clearly aimed at my demographic. That Tom Hiddleston...

Fifteen-year-old Sarah accidentally wishes her baby half-brother, Toby, away to the Goblin King Jareth who will keep Toby if Sarah does not complete his Labyrinth in thirteen hours.

This week, I decided to dip into some childhood nostalgia and watch Labyrinth!  Even to this day, I still have trouble spelling the title.

I love this Henson production, warts and all. It feels like a timeless movie to me and may I say, the puppetry on this film is beautiful to look at (of course this is to be expected from Henson!) Hoggle gets a great big mention for the complexity of his design. Multiple puppeteers controlling the face and voice in tandem with the actor's performance, combined with some great lines and an interesting personality makes you think of him as a character rather than a puppet.

The visuals have a wonderful dream-like concept  art vibe to it. I think special mention goes to the Escher room in the final act and the "As The World Goes Down" ballroom scene, I remember these scenes the most when recalling the film. I liked Bowie in this film, I thought he played a great villain. His look has become very iconic in pop culture and this film is what got me into Contact Juggling. The ball manipulation segments of the film to give the impressive that Jareth is magical was performed by Micheal Morschen, creator of modern contact juggling, hidden behind Bowie and acting as his arms. He essentially had to perform blind which seems even more impressive to me!

As I mentioned it does have a few flaws, mainly a few timing issues. I'd personally cut the "Fireys" scene out as it adds little to the plot, in my opinion has the worst song of the film and oof, the green screen effects have not aged well. The green screen was due to the complex nature of the puppets themselves as they can detach from one another, they simply wouldn't be able to hide the puppeteers. As much as I like their designs, I feel like they aren't needed at all.

I'd also trim the goblin city attack down in time. Whilst fun and energetic, it feels like a situation where they built a set and were determined to show off all of it to get their moneys worth. Due to spending the whole movie with the goblins, we know how incompetent they are and because of this, they won't be life threatening to Sarah. There feels like there is no stakes or tension in this run around the city. I'd maybe change it so that you still have the chase and such but all throughout the city, there are clocks showing how much is left in the time limit aka not much at all. That begins to throw seeds of doubt into the viewer if Sarah will make it in time as she is being chased around the city.

I also find it fun to find out that the owl in the opening credits was the first CG animal in films!

You remind me of the babe!

At some point last fall, I wrote a long and loving string of praises for Kaguya-hime no Monogatari, but I cannot seem to find it. Maybe I forgot to hit "submit" or something, who knows.

In any case, it's brilliant and everyone needs to see it. Takahata is in top form with this one, and unlike Miyazaki, who's gonna keep working 'til his dying breath, I think Kaguya-hime really is going to be his last film.

10/10

Nymphomaniac Part 1 is a very good first half of a movie. I can't judge it as a complete experience because it isn't one. Still, what I saw was very good.

The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)  -  8  (8.4)

Sort of like a much less depressing Boogie Nights mixed with the light-hearted atmosphere of Matt Damons "The Informant". The IMDB score actually feels pretty spot on, such a fun movie with expert acting, direction, cinematography, and editing. Almost 3 hours just fly by. Jonah Hill and DiCaprio are powerhouses in this one.
This is a film you can pretty much put on and watch whenever, pacing is great and the energy is almost always high. Haven't laughed this much in a movie recently.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues (2013)  -  5  (6.9)

Some funny gags, but for some reason it just doesn't work all that well. There's too much winking at the audience, and too many references to the first film. I don't know, I don't have many feelings for it at all really. Watched it, gut-laughed a couple times, but somehow this feels less like a movie and more like short skits strung together with familiar characters. Not offensive if you want some random jokes, but it doesn't do anything to justify spending another 2 hours with these characters. It just makes the first film feel 4 hours long, which goes beyond the point where it stops being funny and just slowly becomes annoying.

The Thing (1982)  -  7  (8.2)

Great bare-bones, stripped-down horror thriller. Excellent atmosphere-building, impressive practical effects. Works very well as a psychological who-can-you-trust-setup.

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)  -  6  (7.9)

Not quite as hokey-feeling as the first one. Individual scenes are for me usually stronger and more punchy, I think partly due to direction and also acting, and the added focus on the politics was really needed to bring some depth to the events. Somehow I don't think this one makes the first one look better (I just don't care much for the filmmaking in general in that one).
Phillip Seymour-Hoffman is the best thing about it.

Generally a more mild and natural color grade, some scenes look almost true-color instead of draped in blue-purple like the first one.
First-class soundmix, really impressive.

Captain Phillips (2013)  -  8  (8.0)

Really straight-forward, but also incredibly effective and tense. The documentary style of it doesn't allow for many artificial moments of dramatic release, so you find yourself just holding your breath for the entire film. Hanks does very well, and the supporting characters are also very strong. Very strong filmmaking, tense, finely tuned, music supports without really coming across as manipulative despite being orchestrally based and using alot of action beats.
Very recommended.

Grand Piano (2013)  -  5  (6.0)

A guy playing a difficult piano concert must not miss a single note under threat of a killer.
Some cool bits here, but overall this, for me, pales in comarison to "Phone Booth" or similar. I've seen others saying this trumps phone booth, but there is very little substance here, and for me it didn't really manage to get me particularly invested.

"Phone Booth" has such tension because it entirely revolves around Colin Pharrells character and under threat forcing him to confront his own lies and deceit.
"Grand Piano" lacks all this, Elijah Woods piano-playing character isn't the focus of the killer, just a means to an end. Plus they establish immediately that the final notes of the concert are the main concern, so you know that is where the movie is going from the get-go. There are no revelations throughout it, just chitchat over radio between pianist and killer.
Overall too thinly scripted and stretched out for me to enjoy it more.

Thor: The Dark World (2013)  -  7  (7.3)

Well, for some reason I enjoyed this. I'll agree that this, like alot of Marvel movies, is a bit of a mess with evil objects here, weird aliens there, subplots and hit-and-miss humor.
However this fell on the right side of enjoyable for me. There is focus on the other worlds in the Thor mythology, and allows for some very nice production design. The final fight has some clever use of worm-holes and teleportation. Renewed focus on the relationship between Thor and Loki which works for me.
Overall very inoffensive, but for me with ideas and setups that were surprisingly enjoyable. Might be dropped down to a 6 on repeat viewings though.

From that perspective I can see what you mean. Not having read either book I don't know what I am missing or what is emphesized differently.

Same with Hunger Games I guess. Haven't read them, and the first movie on its own does not excite me terribly. 2nd one was better filmmaking overall to me and expanded on some aspects nicely.

I wish we'd go back to the days where they'd change the name of the movie, and you'd never know it was based on a book unless you caught the small print in the credits.

Men in Black 2:

Ran accross this on netflix and was in a "fuck it, why not?" mood, haven't seen it in years and years. I remember it being really truly terrible. Don't get me wrong there's still A LOT wrong with it, but on the whole I found myself really enjoying it this time.

There's still some pretty serious problems, Will Smith Will Smith's all over the place a little too much at times, some of the action scenes cross the wacky line into full blown stupidity, and the Johnny Knoxville character is still primarily there to be annoying. But all that said, I actually really enjoyed watching it this time. A lot of jokes landed really well, there's a lot of really well tied in call backs and references to the first movie while not feeling bogged down by them or them being out of place. And for whatever reason the things that really stuck out in my memory as ruining the movie for me the first time were just not an issue, and actually found myself enjoying them this time. And it still managed to do it's own thing that wasn't just a rehash of the first movie.

All in all, I was very pleasantly surprised. Would I rather watch this over the first one? No. But would I look forward to a double feature? Sure. It's fun, has it's own thing going on, and if you can mentally polish over the few rough spots it's legitimately entertaining.

A competently made, enjoyable story, but did it really deserve a "Best Picture" Oscar? I'm not so sure about that. What's so exceptional about The Artist (except for the "B & W, 4:3 and silent" gimmick)? Seems like Academy members simply adore movies about themselves

The film is pleasant to watch and I'd recommend checking it out, but that huge hype wasn't deserved.